tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was apparently caught unawares by Sen. Joe Lieberman's latest assault on health care reform, and that's left Democratic leadership scrambling to figure out how to cobble together a bill that can get 60 votes on the Senate floor, without creating a tremendous head ache down the line when the House and Senate meet to tie their bills together.

Strip the bill of the public option with an opt out, but don't replace it with any public alternatives: no Medicare buy-in, no triggers. This would be a huge near-term defeat for progressives, and one they'd be very reluctant to take lying down. In fact, it's unlikely that they'd swallow it unless they were promised that the public option (or something like it) would be added down the line via the 51-vote budget reconciliation process. Since the bill's main reforms don't take effect for years, the public option (or a Medicare buy-in) could be adopted separately, though that would touch off yet another heated political fight in the months ahead.